Department for Education

Pre-school Education: Per Capita Costs

Lord Watson of Invergowrie: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the new hourly rate of £4.61 per child in private early years settings amounts to an increase of 7.21 per cent; and whether this increase takes into account the rise in minimum wage which takes effect in April 2022.

Baroness Barran: At the Spending Review on 27 October 2021, the department announced additional funding for the early years entitlements worth £160 million in the 2022-23 financial year, £180 million in 2023-24 and £170 million in 2024-25, compared to the current financial year. This is for local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers for the government’s free childcare entitlement offers and reflects cost pressures, like the increase in the national living wage, as well as anticipated changes in the number of eligible children.For the 2022-23 financial year, the department will increase the hourly funding rates for all local authorities by 21p an hour for the two-year-old entitlement and, for the vast majority of areas, by 17p an hour for the three and four-year-old entitlement. We will also increase the minimum funding floor by 17p an hour, meaning no council can receive less than £4.61 per hour for the three and four-year-old entitlements.Uplifted funding rates for each local authority for 2022-23 were published on 25 November: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-funding-2022-to-2023.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Lord Jordan: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide COVID-19 vaccines to (1) the Republic of Barbados, and (2) other small island states which may currently be experiencing COVID-19 vaccine shortages; and whether they intend to support the proposal of the governments of India and South Africa to suspend parts of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights as they relate to COVID-19 vaccines.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon: The UK is committed to help bring the acute phase of the pandemic to an end as soon as possible and strongly supports the COVAX Facility as a key mechanism to deliver this. The majority of the UK's doses are being donated via COVAX. We are donating a smaller quantity to bilateral partners and countries facing their own health emergencies, to further support the global response to Covid-19. We are only donating vaccines to countries which are eligible for Overseas Development Assistance (ODA). The FCDO has responded to the Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) which includes a breakdown of where doses have been sent to as of the end of November. Throughout the pandemic our top priority has been to save lives. We firmly believe the best way to do this is to support the world's leading scientists to develop our most important weapon in the fight against COVID-19: vaccines. Our robust international intellectual property framework protects the ability of these pioneering minds to come up with new ideas and innovations. It has and will continue to allow us to develop vaccines and treatments at unprecedented pace and meet our ultimate goal of saving lives. There is no evidence that an IP waiver would help us to meet this goal. The reality is that the proposal for a TRIPS waiver would dismantle the very framework that helped to produce COVID-19 vaccines at an unprecedented pace. More worryingly, the waiver proposal could lead to a dangerous reduction in the quality of products being manufactured and in the already limited supply of key raw materials. This risks compromising vaccine efficacy and patient safety. Whilst the UK Government has not seen evidence that Intellectual Property is a barrier to the production or supply of COVID-19 goods, including vaccines, the Government will continue to engage constructively in debates at the World Trade Organisation Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Council and other international institutions to promote affordable and equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines for all. The UK affirmed this commitment in the 22 October G7 Trade Ministers' communique, which notes our determination to achieve an impactful outcome on trade and health, including how the international Intellectual Property framework can best support the WTO's pandemic response. The UK remains open to all initiatives that will have a demonstrable impact on vaccine production and distribution. We will continue to engage constructively in discussions at the WTO to that end. To end this pandemic sooner, we must focus efforts on the things that will make a real difference. That includes the promotion of voluntary licensing and technology transfer agreements - several of which have already proven to be successful.

Russia: Ukraine

Lord Truscott: To ask Her Majesty's Government what diplomatic effort they are making to revive the Minsk Agreements.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: As G7 Foreign Ministers made clear in their 12 December statement, we support the efforts of France and Germany in the Normandy Format to achieve full implementation of the Minsk agreements in order to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The Prime Minister underlined to President Putin on 13 December that Russia had to respect the terms of the Minsk agreements. The Foreign Secretary reiterated the UK's support for the Minsk agreements in her 2 December meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and in her 8 December talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba. The UK regularly calls on Russia to end the conflict by immediately ceasing its support for the armed formations it backs, withdrawing its military personnel and weapons from the territory of Ukraine and fulfilling its obligations under the Minsk agreements.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Politics and Government

The Earl of Dundee: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their position on Dayton Accords (1) revisions, and (2) international actions, including negotiations with the Bosnian Serbs, in order to strengthen Bosnia and Herzegovina's central government.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: The importance of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which brought an end to the 1990s conflicts, cannot be overstated. However, it was worded to enable local actors to make changes in the future. As Lord Ashdown said, "Dayton is the floor, not the ceiling". The United Kingdom remains committed to BiH's security, democracy and prosperity. The international community will offer support, but it is essential that the authorities in BiH themselves make reforms based on broad consensus and for the greater good of all citizens.

Eastern Europe: NATO

Lord Campbell-Savours: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assurances, to which they were a party, were given to (1) Mikhail Gorbachev, or (2) other representatives of the government of the Soviet Union, on NATO expansion into Eastern Europe at the time of German reunification; whether any such assurances remain valid; and what assessment they have made of whether those assurances are being met.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: During the 1990 discussions on German reunification, no written assurances about the further enlargement of NATO beyond Germany were made to Mr Gorbachev or other representatives of the Government of the Soviet Union. Despite consistent assertion, Russian leaders have been unable to produce any written evidence that such assurances were made.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: EU Accession

The Earl of Dundee: To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take, if any, to progress the candidacy of Bosnia and Herzegovina towards full European Union membership in 2022.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: Decisions on EU enlargement are for EU Member States to make. We will continue to support all countries of the Western Balkans in their sovereign choice to pursue Euro-Atlantic integration.

Department of Health and Social Care

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce compulsory COVID-19 vaccine certificates in order to help reduce the spread of the Omicron variant.

Lord Kamall: Certification based on vaccination or testing is now mandatory in certain settings. Visitors to these settings are required to have completed a full-course of COVID-19 vaccination with two doses of an approved vaccine or one of the single-dose Janssen vaccine; or be exempt from requirements to be vaccinated; or have taken a lateral flow device test or polymerase chain reaction test which has returned a negative result within 48 hours before visiting the venue or event.

NHS Trusts: Military Aid

Lord Coaker: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many NHS trusts have requested support from the UK armed forces in every month of 2021 so far; which NHS trusts made such requests; and of those that made such requests, which ones were (1) successful, and (2) rejected.

Lord Coaker: To ask Her Majesty's Government which (1) NHS trusts, and (2) ambulance trusts, currently have UK armed forces deployed to them; and how many personnel are deployed to each trust.

Lord Kamall: The information on National Health Service trusts which have requested and received support from the armed forces is not held in the format requested. However, the following table shows the number of Military Aid to Civilian Authorities applications made by NHS England and the number of rejected applications in each month in 2021. Data for December 2021 is not yet available therefore we are unable to provide the information requested on the number of personnel currently deployed to all NHS trusts. Military Aid to Civilian Authorities applications from NHS EnglandNumber of rejected applicationsJanuary322February140March20April10May10June10July10August30September00October00November20

Medical Treatments

Baroness Masham of Ilton: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s proposed severity modifier being introduced in an “opportunity cost neutral” package.

Lord Kamall: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an independent body and is responsible for determining the methods and processes used in the development of its recommendations. Therefore, the Department has made no such assessment.NICE’s recent consultation, Review of methods for health technology evaluation programmes: proposals for change, issued as part of the ongoing review of its methods and processes for health technology assessments, states that the proposed severity modifier is intended to “to put more weight on treatments for people with severe diseases across all types of disease” reflecting evidence “that society values health gains from treatments for very severe diseases over other treatments”. The consultation also states that: “With the proposed approach, there are very few topics … which met the end-of-life criteria previously, but which would not receive an additional weighting with the severity modifier.” A copy of Review of methods for health technology evaluation programmes: proposals for change is attached.NICE will consider the consultation responses in developing the final changes to its methods.Review of methods for health technology evaluation (pdf, 379.9KB)

Coronavirus: Drugs

Lord Mendelsohn: To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the (1)planned order quantities, and (2) delivery dates, for the COVID-19 antibody drugs Molnupiravir and Ritonavir; andwhat is the(a) current, and (b) planned, geographic distribution of Molnupiravir and Ritonavir across England.

Lord Kamall: The Government has secured 480,000 patient courses of molnupiravir and 250,000 patient courses of PF-07321332 in combination with ritonavir. Information on delivery and distribution of these items is dependent on the companies’ supply chains and receipt of the appropriate marketing authorisations from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. We are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement, the UK Health Security Agency and the devolved administrations to ensure that, when available, these treatments will be accessible to those who are most at risk of developing severe disease. Further details will be announced in due course.